Why the 2027 Daytona 500 is the end of a road for…

Jimmie Johnson will end his NASCAR Cup Series career a year from now with 702 starts in the 69th Daytona 500.

Sure, his full-time career with Hendrick Motorsports ended after the 2020 season and then came a chapter that included IMSA and IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing but the seven-time Cup champion returned home as a team owner with Legacy Motor Club in 2023.

Since then, Johnson has made 14 starts at the highest level in the No. 84 car he co-owns, but his most competitive appearances have come at Daytona, where he finished third last year, and where it makes the most sense to wrap it up.

Jimmie Johnson, Legacy Motor Club Toyota (Photo by: Chris Graythen - Getty Images)

In between the next two Daytona 500s, he will also race in the inaugural street course event at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, which is a de facto home race for the 50-year-old.

“No, it just made a lot of sense,” Johnson said during a press conference at Daytona on Saturday. “I think as a driver that moonlights, the restrictor plate-tracks or that style of track is where you can be the most competitive. This car is so different than any generation of car I've driven before.

“To show up at Kansas and think that you're going have a shot to win, even when I ran a nine-race schedule, it's just not a truth that can really be seen or realized. Daytona, you can, Talladega, you can, Atlanta for sure. So, I want to show them being competitive, and to have my last race in an event where I could truly win - it could be that cool walk off home run.”

Johnson was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2024 after a career that produced 83 wins in matching Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty in championships. It was during that induction period where he started to evaluate really how he wanted to sunset his Cup driving tenure.

“I imagine this year will be more reflection, and certainly, when we come back here next year, that'll happen again, but I'm now savoring and enjoying, the emotions, feelings, conversations, all the moments around the time I've spent in this sport and all the great times we had,” Johnson said. “So, there'll be more of that, but as I look back, the Hall of Fame, first being nominated, which kind of knew that was coming but the week, and all the events going into the Hall of Fame, it was just such a special time and it's really opened the door to enjoy these emotions and reflecting and letting it in. So, I'm getting better at that and enjoying it, and, I know we'll have another year of that.”

Legacy Motor Club is expanding to three full-time cars next year but Johnson will be driving a fourth car with a TBD driver running the new full-time effort. And while Johnson will stop driving Cup cars after next February, he says he remains open to driving in any number of categories after that.

“Man, anything with an engine. I was just with Marty (Smith) and (Ryan) McGee, and, McGee mentioned the Bonneville Salt Flats, and, I mean, I've never been,” Johnson said. “I mean, that's something I should probably try to do, so I'm going figure out. I know our Toyota friends are here, so guys, what can we go break a speed record with?

“Between Toyota and Carvana, they're like, yes, great idea. Let's go do that. So, we're racing the (Trophy Truck) Mint 400. I get to go back and go to my roots. Back to my roots and compete with Troy Herbst here in a handful of weeks. So excited about that one. But trying to find those marquee moments, those neat opportunities to go racing.”

But that also doesn’t include IndyCar. That chapter has closed too.

“The commitment it takes to be where I want to be in the field, I just, I don't have that in me anymore,” Johnson said. “My focus and interest is truly building this race team. When I reflect on who I was is a 25 year old kid jumping in that 48 car - I was up at (early in the mornings) with this passion and energy to chase the day and do the best that I could.

“I don't have that passion for that part of life anymore, and that's been a tough thing to kind of accept, and if I'm honest with myself, maybe the last year or two of driving, I was in that phase, but I mean, I had the best seat in the house. I was almost in denial of, maybe what was going on, and it's taken time. It took the two years in IndyCar and the journey that I've been on now to really reflect on that and see it.”

The two events he is most angling for is the two big endurance races at Daytona and Le Mans.

“I would. I really, really would,” he said. “I had an invite for Rolex. They come typically as a driver, those opportunities show up in December. People start looking around for drivers, and if I'm to do it, I need to plan in like July or something to pull that off. The off-season is just so busy for the team. We have so much expansion taking place that a very credible offer came my way. I had to sadly turn it down. I just didn't have the bandwidth to do it, but I certainly would look at that. Definitely.”